Saints striker Sadio Mane has talked of how he is perfectly happy at St Mary's despite rumours in the press about a move away from Southampton.

In an article in the Daily Echo Sadio Mane has talked about the opening months of the season and how he is happy at Sy Mary's despite unsettling rumours in the press.

Unlike his team mate Victor Wanyama, Mane did not allow these rumours to take away his focus from playing for Saints and he kept his head down, got on with his own game and let his football do the talking.

In the article Mane said.

“In football we always have, like this, many of you move but I have a contract with Southampton,”

“I’m happy here, the fans like me, which means I’m doing my job properly. I’m happy here that’s the most important thing.”

“The more important thing is that they’re here with us,” he said about the summer's new signings at St Mary’s.

“They also have many qualities and this is good for the team and I’m happy for them. They are doing well.”

Quizzed about Saints start to the season Mane replied.

“Yeah, but it is important because I’m here in Southampton.

“I’m happy here, but as the beginning we have some difficulties, but it’s football, you have to forget it and keep going and work hard.”

On his own personal form the Senegalese striker said.

“Yeah, I’m happy, because every player want to score.

“But for the team, the more important was the team, so you score for the team.”

Its good to hear that Mane is happy at St Mary's, but we also know that if he continues his own good start to the season, which has seen him score 4 goals across the three competitions Saints have played in plus as many assists, that he will continue to attract the attention of those so called bigger clubs and Spurs.

It is also good to find out what is important to him.

Sadio Mane has done things the right way in what was a difficult time for him as a player when various people are trying to turn his head and also a difficult time for Southampton Football Club, but it was good to see he took it in his stride.

Im sure that Sadio Mane harbours ambitions of playing for bigger clubs in World football than Saints, it's not good to say those words, but it is reality.

But the real reality is that as we continue to grow and build as a club we will sign better players and those players are going to have those ambitions, that is a sad fact of life, but they would not be the players they are without that drive for the best and perfection, our job as a club is to use that ambition to our own good, get them to achieve their ambitions and in doing so we may achieve a few of our own.

Yes it does mean that we have to ensure that the conveyor belt continues to function properly and we keep bringing in players, but every year we take a step forward in this task, in the summer of 2014 the likes of Liverpool, Spurs & Manchester United thought they could just walk in and sign our players when they wanted, in the summer of 2015 they found that we were not so naive and a lot stronger.

That is setting the bench mark for players who sign as well, they now know that if they do well we will not stand in their way, but the sale has to be for the benefit of Southampton Football Club and we are not going to sell just because a big club thinks it can put a few rumours in the press to unsettle players and then prise them away with a derisory offer.

Photo: Action Images

stmichael added 09:28 - Sep 29 If we can get 3 good seasons from Sadio and a big profit when he leaves then we and he should be very happy. The key is finding another Sadio to replace him. That's reality for saints.
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SonicBoom added 09:34 - Sep 29 Isn't this just a re-hask of the interview Mane gave just after the transfer window closed?
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IWOZTHERE added 12:15 - Sep 29 Good to hear from Sadio, let's hope it's more than just a 'press release'. How long does he have to run on his contract? If we are to stand a chance of avoiding unwanted future departures, the board should right now be re-evaluating their policy on contracts and in particular wage caps. IF their 'fine words' about not wanting to sell our top players is to be believed then that is without doubt essential. Wasn't there a 5 year plan? That cannot be realised without players to match. Credit the board for 'balancing the books' through shrewd (mostly) transfer dealings, but spending only a fraction of the receipts will not realise the dream they tried to sell us. The board (or some individual) has so far wanted it both ways in that we also don't pay anywhere near the wages offered by our direct competitors.We can't afford to match them, but............. We have now perhaps four crucial players likely to be tempted by offers in the near future if they continue performing. Take VVD out of the equation for now but sit the others down and re-negotiate their contracts at a competitive level. Enlighten me if I'm misinformed but if it's capped at about £50,000 we're not in the game.

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mesquita added 12:36 - Sep 29 I think that there are 2 issues here. Paying more to the key players we want to keep, the new TV deal should allow that, and inserting buyout figures as they do in Spain. Overall, however, success breeds success so the better the club does the fewer teams our players will want to go to and the easier it will be to recruit replacements when they do go (or get injured or stop being as good)

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IWOZTHERE added 15:24 - Sep 29 Pretty much in tune there mesquita. Well known that success breeds success, likewise confidence (and the reverse) but I doubt we'll achieve sufficient success to 'break the mould' until AFTER the club demonstrates it's ambition with the investment we've both mentioned. We should then stand a good chance of keeping the top players and attracting others. It's in the hands of the club.

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IanRC added 20:21 - Sep 29 Good to hear from Mane, I have not enjoyed watching a player so much since Le Tiss stopped pulling on a shirt. Sure he is not the finished article and there are frustrating days but IMO he is a great talent. Think some of the criticism of the board is unfounded unless I have got the wrong end of the stick about the so called 'fair play' rules (translated as rules introduced by corrupt bodies to ensure their pals stay at the top without any commitment to develop talent and help the national team). As I understand it isn't the total salary bill increase capped to a relatively small percentage, clearly discriminating against a team that was until fairly recently in the first division, even if we could afford to pay more. Happy to be corrected if I have misunderstood.

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